a. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to testing of communications busses and more specifically to signal probing of communications busses with a multitude of signals.
b. Description of the Background
Parallel communication busses typically have a multitude of signal lines that are operable to send electrical signals between devices. It is often desirous to test one or more lines of the bus by using various electronic test devices such as a scope or meter. When testing a bus that comprises many signals, a technician may be required to disconnect and connect a probe for each individual signal. Some communication busses have in excess of sixty or more signals, causing the testing of each line of the bus to become time consuming and error prone.
Direct probing of some communications busses may cause the performance of the bus to be disrupted or compromised. In such instances, the measurements taken may be skewed, distorted, or meaningless. Often, certain circuitry may be necessary to isolate the signals from the test equipment.
Some communication busses use an adaptive filtering mechanism whereby a device on the bus sets specific filtering parameters to maximize the signal integrity at that particular point of the bus. In some instances, one or more devices on the bus may transmit a training signal that is received and used by the filter to set the adaptive filter parameters. Measurements may be desired with or without adaptive filtering operational.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a system and method for simply testing a multitude of signal lines on a parallel communication bus. It would be further advantageous to provide a system and method for testing a multitude of signal lines wherein adaptive filtering may be optionally used.